my new wheels

Good morning.
Well, our wet cold weekend is over. But not the wet and cold. It is again a drizzly, cold morning. Currently 54 with a high expected of only 63. It looks to be wet and cold the rest of the week. At least I'll be busy working. I'm almost completely booked this week. Just a few openings left.
The rain let up and it dried out enough for us to mow the lawn and I did a little yard work. We also got delivered the new snow tires for the Kia.
If you remember this post, my Kia got beat up last winter. Slid right into a light post. But anyway, with the automakers trying to get every mpg out of their cars, they use tires that have less resistance on the roads, that also means less traction, especially in snow. So Craig went online and found these 'snow' tires. Especially treadled for winter driving. He did that a few years ago for the Cruiser. It makes a huge difference!
He got them online from a company called Tire Rack. They were cheaper even with shipping than from Discount tire or other local dealers.
And then, for dinner, Craig made some tasty latkes to go with my grilled chicken and zucchini.

Ummmm, yummy!
And now, it's time to get ready for another work week......

it's wet and cold...

Good morning from a cold, wet, Lansing, MI.
Yesterday was a complete wash-out. Cold with a day long drizzle. Needless to say, not much accomplished. We did have some running around to do. Bank, P.O., and such. We did find new trash containers for the Salon. The old ones were looking pretty bad. And we did manage to get our flu shots at Kroger's. I'm always a little leery about them since our friend Craig from Memphis/Palm Springs had a reaction a couple of years ago. But I'm fine this morning, so I guess all is good. :-)
The rest of the day, I pretty much played on the puter. Fixed us egg mc muffins for brunch and Craig made turkey burgers for dinner. We watched another episode of 2 1/2 men. I'm not sure it's going to work with Ashton Kutcher, but so far so good. :-)
And that's all I got.....

It's raining men

Good morning.
Actually, it's just plain raining. :-)
I didn't do my usual Sunday post because I didn't have much to say.
The weather has been on the cooler side. It's been a very cold September, and has me not wanting to do much outside.
I did do my usual Sunday cleaning in the Salon, and Craig did his usual laundry and bookwork, but the rest of Sunday, I was a slacker. :-)
I read blogs, played games, and researched our next trip.
Craig made ham steaks for dinner with butternut squash and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.
This morning, I've got to place an online order for Salon supplies and after Craig gets up, we have a number of stops to make.
So that's it for now....

yummy

Good morning.
As I said previously, the Salon has been very busy, and today is also. I have to start at 7:30 this morning.
Last night, Craig fixed a tasty stir-fry with chicken sausage, onions, peppers, snap peas, and apples. Yummy!

Tonight, he's making home-made taco salads. :-)
Now I'm off to get ready for work!

summer's gone

Good morning.
Fall has sure settled in. Our highs have been only in the low 60's. Summer went by so fast again. As usual. :-( The locust trees at work are all turning yellow, and the rest of the trees won't be far behind.
Work has been crazy busy. I'm working late today and tomorrow. That's what happens when you take an extra day off. ;-)
And speaking of Wednesday, I did nothing...nothing. I was a lazy slug. Hope this doesn't become a habit. :-)
Anyway, I'm off to get ready for work, so have a great weekend!

our latest trip

Good afternoon.

We've just returned from our latest trip. This was our longest, at 4 nights/3 days. This trip took us about 2 1/2 hours south to the Elkhart/ Middleberry KOA.
We arrived late on Friday after working most of the day. The campground was busy, and the sites were fairly close. Our pull-thru site was barely long enough for our mo-ho and car caddy, but we made it fit.
We set up, and fixed chicken kielbasa's for dinner with broccoli slaw. We retired with a movie.
Saturday, after our coffee walk, we headed out to the near-by town of Goshen for the Russian Festival. This was a small congregation of a Russian Orthodox church, but they put together a nice little festival where we dined on Russian chicken, kotleti, (meat patti) Cucumber salad and kasha, a type of Bulgar. Everything was tasty except the chicken was cooked in a covered pan so you had to peel off the yukky skin, which was probably better for us anyway. :-)

Then we watched the children do their Russian dances.
They were very cute. They also had baked goods and crafts. We found a loaf of Russian spice bread we had later that evening. A hearty dark bread with raisins and nuts and a strong ginger snap smell. It was very good!

Then it was off to Elkhart,(about 12 miles north) to see the RV Museum. A very large building housing old and new rvs and assorted rv related stuff. These pics of of the first known RV....
We spent a few hours checking everything out.


Fascinating the different types of rv's they had back then.
Back at he campground, we prepared our dinner of grilled pork steaks, baked potatoes and grilled zucchini. The campground stayed busy the entire time we were here. A lot of the rigs would stay only 1 night. They appeared to be people working there way from the east and north to the south and west. It was like a migration. There was a wide variety of rigs.

Sunday was to be a relaxing day as being in Amish country, a lot of places were closed, so we took our morning walk, fixed a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, and morning star farms sausage links. The we headed out to a shopping strip between Goshen and South Bend. We stopped at a Kohl's where I needed to get some new work slacks. I totally ruined a pair last week when I got some bleach on them. One of the hazards of working in a Salon with chemicals. :-)

After shopping, we stopped at a TGIF for a light lunch of spicy chicken avocado egg rolls and fried dill pickle strips. They were both yummy. We then headed to the small town of Middleberry, just a few miles from the campground for their autumn festival. Browsed the crafts and food, but didn't buy a thing. :-)Back at the campground we relaxed with cocktails and the Sunday paper.
The campsite had a paved patio and a standing grill. Craig thought it would be fun to cook with charcoal for a change so he went to the camp store and got a bag of briquettes and lighter fluid.
We cooked chicken thighs and legs on the grill, and Craig made a pasta salad to go with them. They were very good. That evening, we sat by a nice campfire. Monday morning, we left the campground early. This was the reason for our trip to this area. We were on our way to the small town of Napannee, about 40 miles from the campground. There, we were to take an RV factory tour. And not just any RV tour. This was Newmar, the company that built our motor home. I thought it would be interesting to see how it's done. After arriving and having a difficult time finding building 9, (I discovered they didn't number the building in a logical order, they numbered them as they were bought) we found the waiting area for the tour. They had quite a good size group. About 30. After a brief history of Newmar, we were off for the tour. Manufacturing motor homes is very different from cars. They build each piece to order. Either from a customer, or a dealer who wants a certain type for their sales lot. So depending on what's in the order line, depends on what you'll see being built during your tour. I was very disappointed we were unable to take any pics. They employ a large number of Amish. and they can not have their pictures taken due to their religion. Probably just as good, since they have awful looking hair-cuts, and those funny scraggly beards. :-)

The tour ended up lasting just over 2 hours and was fascinating! Instead of a conveyor belt type of production, the pre-built ford chassis comes in and the wheels are set on these large square pads. They must be an industrial version of the ones you use to push around furniture. When they were done at one station, they would, by hand, literally push it over to the next one. These are 20-40 thousand pound vehicles! At each 'station', a different group would do their part. We saw a unit go from a flat-bed chassis, then with walls, roof, wiring, carpet, cabinets and so on until it's done. They worked like pro's! :-)

It was really interesting to watch the progress. Right now, they're building 3 a day. Back before the recession, they were building 20 a day!
We even got to go through a few of the completed ones. Very nice!
After the tour, we headed back towards our campground, with a stop in Goshen for lunch, at a restaurant called Wings etc. I of course had their jumbo wings, and Craig had a buffalo chicken wrap. Both were very good. Them back to the campground to relax. We loaded the car for an early morning departure.
After breakfast and a nice lunch, we had a light dinner of turkey kielbasas. The evening was spent watching various shows on the discovery channel. it was nice havig cable for a change. :-)
Tuesday morning, we awoke to dense fog. Packed up the mo-ho, dumped, and we were on our ay. The fog hung around until we were near Lansing. we gassed up at $3.49 and arrived home safe. No incidents this trip. Another good trip! :-)

guess what...

Good morning.
Yep! My lack of posts means one thing.....Another road trip!
details coming later...

it's over

Good morning.
Yep, fall is in the air. It's all of 36 out this morning, going for a high of only 56. It's suppose to get back into the low 70's later this weekend, but you can feel that the seasons have changed. It happened the day after Labor Day. The 'heat' was gone. Cooler weather had arrived overnight. It's chilly in the mornings. And darker. The days are getting quickly shorter. I dislike and despise our long winters. But, as I do every year, I'll enjoy our last few trips, stretching the season as long as I can, then spend the long, cold, dark winter, planning next years trips.
Yes, I could plan a week in warmer weather, but it would go by so fast, and I'd still be stuck in the rest of winter. And that money could better go toward the summer trips I enjoy so much.
Anyway, the Salon has been busy. The phone has been ringing, and I'm completely booked the rest of the week. :-)
It's good to see business getting back to where we were before the recession.
Now, time to get ready for work...

lazy and busy

Good morning.

As I suspected, Sunday was truly a lazy day. Outside of cleaning the Salon, Nothing else of substance was accomplished. I managed to read the Sunday paper, put together a Monday shopping list, and spent most of the day on the puter playing games, surfing our up-coming last few trips, and blog reading. It was nice taking it easy, but I did feel a little guilty. :-)

Monday was different. While Craig slept, I washed the mo-ho and 2 cars. After we shopped and did the usual Monday post office and bank, I waxed the front and caps of the mo-ho, and cleaned all the windows. Then I helped Craig mow the lawn.

Sunday dinner was a pork roast on the grill with baked potatoes and grilled carrots.

Monday was Craig's tasty Turkey Pie.

Today, is more shopping. I need some more tape for the slide-out awning, some touch-up paint for the mo-ho, and ink for my printer.

pretty as a picture

Good morning.
The week ended on a busy note. The salon was very busy.  The weather has warmed up a bit also, back into the mid 70's.
As per my usual Sunday routine, I've just returned from cleaning the Salon.
After we got out of work, we came home and relaxed on the deck with cocktails
Although the gardens are starting to look a bit ragged, I did pick some Zinnia's that are still blooming good.

Craig made homemade pizza for dinner yesterday, and we have enough left over for breakfast.  :-)
Today looks to be a lazy day as I'm not feeling like doing much. We'll see how it goes....

brrr again

Good morning.
It's another chilly start, but not as cold as the last few days. It should be back in the mid 70's this weekend.  :-)
The Salon has been moderately busy this week, and looks to finish quite busy. I'm working late today and tomorrow. Other than that, it's been a normal week.
I appreciated the interesting comments and e-mails I received from my 'friend' post. Obviously, the term 'friends' covers a wide range of feelings for people. I'm probably analyzing the term too much, and should just accept the fact that I have a lot of friends!  :-)
And to all my friends...Have a great weekend!

brrrr

Good morning.
It's been a very chilly fall like weather here. It's all of 48 this morning. The last couple of days have hit a high of only mid 60's. brrrr
Fortunately, warmer weather is due to return by the weekend.  :-)
Tuesday morning, while cleaning the Salon, I decided to check my messages on my phone. 3 messages. 2 for appointments, and 1 a dear john.
This customer I've done for years, off and on. She hadn't been in for a while, and apparently thought she should let me know why. I've had this call before. They always call on a day they know I don't work, so they won't have to actually talk to me. It's like a dear John letter, but with voice-mail instead. She went on as to why she hadn't been in for a long time. Her mother recently passed away, she moved again, bla, bla, bla, and her neighbor is a stylist and is cutting her hair.
She just wanted to let me know why she hadn't been in and if this neighbor thing doesn't work out, she knows where I am.
To tell the truth, I hadn't missed her at all. I've got such a large clientele, that usually the only time I notice if someone hasn't been in, is if I run across their card while looking for another.
I suppose this is a way for them to move on and have closure on their part.
The other funny thing about customers is how many think we're 'friends'. Lewis did a whole post on the subject. I've got customers I've done for years who consider me a 'good friend'. I'm not sure why, I'm friendly with the customers. Many I actually do 'like'. But outside of the Salon, we never see each other. We may talk about a number of personal issues such as what we did on our last trip, how are their kids doing, and so on. But we don't hang out together outside the Salon. I would think 'friends' would do that. Now would you consider them friends? But I think the word friend has become a very loose term. I myself talk about camping friends, blogging friends, Facebook friends. But I don't have a lot of 'good friends', I'm just 'friendly' with a lot of people.
Okay, enough on this subject as I appear to be rambling.  :-)
So with the yucky cold weather, I did little outside. Spent most of Tuesday on the puter, catching up on blogs, and researching our last few trips for things to do. Craig mowed the lawn, and I cooked pork cutlets on the grill with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli.
The camping season is quickly winding down. Just a few more trips. How did it go by so fast?
And now, time for another work week.....

another trip

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our latest trip. A holiday weekend trip to Indiana Dunes State park. I must say, it was one of our best yet!
We left Friday after work, arriving safely around 3pm. We got set up, and everything was functioning normally.
We went out of the park, about 3 miles down the road to a Popeye's where we got our dinner.  :-) We've been trying to do better with our trips, and have cut down a lot on our fried chicken, but I needed a fix!  :-)
Saturday morning, we drove into Chicago. Did some window shopping, had a tasty lunch at a TGI  Friday's just off Michigan Ave. and enjoyed the weather and people watching at Navy Pier. Arrived back at the campground as the weather went bad. Cooked turkey kiebasa's for dinner as we watched the rain pummel the tenters.  :-) With out cable, we weren't able to watch our Spartan's in their first game of the season, so we joyfully watched the Notre Dame Irish being manhandled by a nobody team. Who were they? Someone called Florida State University. 
Sunday, after our morning coffee walk, I fixed a tasty breakfast of Eggland Eggs on the grill, with Morning Star Farms sausage, and toast. Then we went out to get the Sunday paper, where we found our Sparty's won their game as expected. With the cloudy drizzly weather, we headed over to the Blue Chip casino, where we spent a few hours playing the slots, and left with $60 more than we arrived with.  :-)
On the way back to the campground, we treated ourselves with lunch at Barlett's gourmet grill and tavern we found halfway between the casino ans campground. A very tasty lunch with Crab cakes and a pulled pork flat-bread pizza. Back at the campground, the weather had cleared, so we headed to the beach via the newly reopened beach trail.

The trail winds through the dunes, following a creek. It was closed for several years due to the creek, which was originally buried under the beach parking lot, flooded one spring, collapsing part of the parking lot. They originally redid the creek alongside the parking lot, but apparently ran into design problems. It sat that way for a couple of years. Finally, the got it finished. It's a lot shorter than walking along the road. They now have a bridge that goes over the creek, along with a dam to control the outflow. Anyway, the beach was packed, and it was fun watching all the people. But I swear, we felt as if we were in  a foreign country. It seemed as if most people spoke Spanish, or some Eastern European dialect. It was really wierd! I wonder where they all came from for the day.
Back at the campsite, I got a campfire ready, and Craig prepared our steaks for the grill. We saw a cooking show the night before, and got a few tips on cooking the perfect steak. it also showed a recipe for grilled eggplant we wanted to try.
I have to say, we cooked the steaks according to the show, and they were the juiciest, tastiest steaks we've ever eaten! Can't wait to try that again!
You want the secret? Okay, it's too easy! The meat needs to be at room temp. Season with your favorite spices. It doesn't really matter here. The grill needs to be smoking hot! I mean as hot as you can get it! Put the steaks on the grill, cook for 3 minutes, turn half a turn. Don't turn over yet! Cook another 3 minutes. Turn over. If the grill starts to flame, move them to the side a bit, otherwise, cook until desired doneness. We like medium well, and that meant another 5 minutes. Remove from grill and cover, letting the meat 'rest' and finish cooking for 10 minutes. It was amazing!

So, after the delicious dinner, we finished the evening around the campfire.
Monday morning, we broke down camp, dumped the tanks, and arrived safely back in Lansing. 
We got there safe, arrived back home safe, had a wonderful time, it was a great trip!

same-o is good.

Good morning.
So far, it's been a busy week in the Salon. Nothing out of the ordinary. Same-o same-o is good.  :-)
Looking forward to another weekend.
And that's all I got.  :-)
Have a great weekend!